I'm not a well read atheist. I take my atheism on faith.
DJ RANN
While I'm certainly no Dawkins or Hitchens apologizer, you have to factor in that when they started their crusades (lol) atheism did not have the level of acceptance or maybe indifference it has now.
Dawkins first book on it was in the mid 70's and caused a massive stir, and got him a slew of death threats, so I don't really think it's surprising or even unwarranted that he may have a bit of an attitude these days.
I do agree with Jack that he's preaching to the converted and a lot of what he does not is a massive auto-back-pat, but then again he's really just making money like every single author does, by playing to their crowd. It's endemic in every field or self publicity from politicians to musicians, so why should he do anything differnt?
I will say there seem to be a lot of people chiming in about about Dawkins and Hitchens that have never read their books and especially Dawkins' book, the God Delusion goes a long way to very precisely explain why he has such vitriol against religion;
You have to realize that in certain countries, namely the USA, you are perceived as a social leper or even professionally sidelined if you don't believe,
Bear in mind it's basically impossible to get elected to office without putting up a solid religious stance.
Then you haver things like George Bush (Dubya) saying in regards to tough and complex decisions he had to make, "imma' pray on it". Atheists don't like that major policy decisions are being made on 2000 year old fairytales.
If you were to take one thing from Dawkins though, it's how well he explains the bias for religion in our society, as in it's widespread acceptance of a possible reality, rather then it having to prove this ancient story - in essence he's angry that he has to "disprove" religion when there is no proof that it exists.
His biggest peeves though are that religion is forced on to children and that adults are forced to live or behave a certain way due to religion, whether or not you like him, you can't deny he's right.
Here's some choice cuts from him:
"As a scientist, I am hostile to fundamentalist religion because it actively debauches the scientific enterprise. It teaches us not to change our minds, and not to want to know exciting things that are available to be known. It subverts science and saps the intellect.”
"Of 43 studies carried out since 1927 on the relationship between religious belief and one’s intelligence and/or educational level, all but four found an inverse connection. That is, the higher one’s intelligence or education level, the less one is likely to be religious or hold “beliefs” of any kind."
“All the Founding Fathers, whatever their private religious beliefs, would have been aghast to read the journalist Robert Sherman’s report of George Bush Senior’s answer when Sherman asked him whether he recognized the equal citizenship and patriotism of Americans who are atheists: ‘No, I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.”
I do understand why he's a dick, if for nothing else than because religion needs someone to be a dick to it.
Alex
Even though I'm not atheist I agree that anything as powerful and easily corruptable as religion needs to be questioned, considered and criticised. My objections simply start and end with Dawkins' method of insults (some) and his pompous and superior attitude.
But if that's the only way he can think of to get his message across then so be it. I will move on to other smart people questioning religion.
"you're not an atheist, you're a gaytheist" :stongue:
pkcRAISTLIN
like most here i think dawkins is a twat but as RANN notes, he's not wrong a lot. sometimes his twatness makes me laugh.
i sent pat condell an email once telling him he needs to drop the whining and start being funny again. no reply :(
quote:
Originally posted by Silky Johnson
Omg I wanna send him my post about his small dick, but as a much longer hate letter, and see if he'll read it!
oh wow that would be amazing.
de+
quote:
Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN
i sent pat condell an email once telling him he needs to drop the whining and start being funny again. no reply :(
I still think he's funny. Especially when he talks about the so called "progressives". Because its so true
de+
This documentary is even more relevant today than when it first aired in 2006
Alex
I was just reminded of this atheist dude that knocked on my door a little while back.
Well... He called himself an atheist but all he wanted to talk about was that Jesus smoked pot and had frequent anal sex with one of his disciples (I forget which) and that's why (he said) that the bible is bull and that atheism was the only way.
Sushipunk
quote:
Originally posted by Alex
I was just reminded of this atheist dude that knocked on my door a little while back.
Well... He called himself an atheist but all he wanted to talk about was that Jesus smoked pot and had frequent anal sex with one of his disciples (I forget which) and that's why (he said) that the bible is bull and that atheism was the only way.
"If a man lies with another man, he should be stoned"?
